Letter to MOT

To: 

Mr. Lui Tuck Yew

lui_tuck_yew@mot.gov.sg

C.C.

lim_boon_wee@mot.gov.sg, (Deputy Secretary MOT)

hock_yong_chew@lta.gov.sg, (CEO of LTA)

teo_ser_luck@mti.gov.sg (Mr. Teo Sur Luck)  

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Review of law and road design to promote safe driving
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Dear Minister,
We are LovecyclingSG, a group of ordinary people who love cycling in Singapore. Among us there are parents, children and friends. We have been cycling all around Singapore every Sunday morning since 2 years ago. Cycling opens our eyes and minds and enhanced our appreciation of Singapore as a green, modern city.

We believe cycling is for everyone and it is the most eco-friendly, healthy and human way of moving around besides walking. A number of our 1800 members are considering to cycle to work or have already done so. We are grateful for world-class road infrastructure and public transportation today, and we do hope the same can be done to facilitate safe cycling. 

The recent incidents along Changi Coast Road and Lower Delta road, where three cyclists were killed in a crash involving cars and bicycle, highlighting the fact that the main source of danger for cyclists are motorized vehicles, especially fast moving big vehicles. These heart breaking incidents can be and should be avoided or mitigated.

Apart from the need to improve education for drivers/cyclists to adopt a gracious road attitude, we would like to highlight two areas for consideration:

Firstly, there is a general feeling that the penalty for life endangering behavior like drink driving, reckless driving or speeding are way too lenient to be effective as a deterrence.

Secondly, roads and junction design and configuration seem to undermine the safety of human (pedestrians and cyclists), and in favor of smoother movement for cars. For example:

- Large radius at road corner facilitate smooth turning with little or no need to slow down, but pedestrians or cyclist pushing a bike crossing the road has to look behind (right) to make sure no careless driver. The extra crossing distance needed to cover the radius exposes children, elderly or disabled people to more danger of cars. Pedestrian crossing is safer to be drawn at least 15 meter from the junction.

- Many lanes are wider than standard, these wide lanes encourage speeding because it feels slower on a wide open lane compared to a narrower lane. Such lanes can be narrowed down and at the same time, create some breathing space for cyclists between the double yellow lines and the curb side.

We should review our current road design. Many life-endangering situations can be reduced by a simple adjustment of the road marking or minor reconstruction. It will help to calm the speeding traffic and will certainly help to save the lives of healthy living people who may be our family members or friends.

We hope a serious investigation can be initiated by MOT, involving the feedback of all road users and stake-holders, with the intention to come to :

1) improve legislation to allow the law to deal with irresponsible driving behavior more effectively

2) improve road and junction design in favour of human life over slight speed gain of car movement.

 We are more than happy to help in this investigation as a feedback group. Many of us are drivers and understand traffic rules well. We look forward to your response and to meet up to provide our feedback and suggestions.

Best regards,
 Francis Chu & Taiwoon Woon
on behalf of LovecyclingSG

LovecyclingSG
LCSG@Facebook